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Fearnley wins fifth Chicago Marathon

NSWIS athlete Kurt Fearnley won his fifth Chicago Marathon over the weekend after a tense sprint to the line with 11 other racers.
Fearnley clocked a time of one hour, 30 minutes and 45 seconds to win gold, just one second ahead of American Josh George with another 11 athletes within 12 seconds of first.
Fearnley will now turn his attention to the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar, where he will contest the 1500m and 5000m before heading back to the USA to defend his New York Marathon title.

Oceania Cup teams named

Seven NSWIS athletes have been named across the Australian men’s and women’s hockey teams for the Oceania Cup in New Zealand.
The women’s team features three NSWIS athletes; Georgina Morgan, Emily Smith and Mariah Williams, while the men’s team includes Matthew Dawson, Blake Govers, Tom Craig and Flynn Ogilvie.
The team’s were selected following the 2015 Australian Hockey League at which the NSW women’s team won bronze and the NSW men’s team finished fifth.
The Oceania Cup takes place in Stratford, New Zealand from 21-25 October and features national teams from New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji.

Medals galore at Oceania Championships

The 2016 Oceania Track Championships concluded over the weekend with a host of NSWIS athletes winning medals in New Zealand.
Sprinter Kaarle McCulloch was the standout performer of the NSWIS contingent after winning three gold medals.
The Olympic bronze medallist began with two gold medals on the opening day, triumphing in the women’s team sprint with Anna Meares and individually in the women’s 500m time trial, before closing with gold in the women’s sprint.
Rising star Jackson Law added silver and bronze medals to the Australian medal haul, taking silver in the men’s madison with bronze coming in the men’s scratch, while Stefanie Fernandez Preiksa winning bronze in the women’s team sprint. The men’s keirin event also saw sprinter Mitch Bullen take bronze as well as sixth in the men’s sprint.
Youngster Nick Yallouris narrowly missed out on bronze in the men’s time trial, finish fourth, while Peter Lewis placed ninth in the men’s keirin.

Birtwhistle on top of the world

Triathlete Jake Birtwhistle claimed the biggest win of his career by winning gold at the ITU U23 Triathlon World Championships in the USA.
Becoming just the third Australian male to win the title after Brad Kahlefeldt and Aaron Royle, Birtwhistle crossed the line in 1:40:51 to defeat Spaniards David Castro Fajardo and Nan Oliveras for gold.
Birtwhistle made his move for the line with 1.5km to go, overcoming a grade one hamstring tear suffered in training last week to secure victory and a place in history.
“I didn’t want anything today but gold!” Birtwhistle said to Triathlon Australia after the win.
“I would not have been happy with anything else; I knew I could do it and I had to do everything in my control to make that happen and that’s what I did."
The event also saw world championship titles decided in the elite men, elite women and U23 women divisons, with NSWIS athletes also performing well in all events.
The elite men’s divisions saw Aaron Royle and Ryan Bailie finish seventh and 10th respectively, claiming ninth and sixth respectively in the overall ITU standings, while in the elite women’s Charlotte McShane placed 13th to finish at 15th on the oversall ITU standings. Natalie Van Coevorden finished seventh in the U23 women’s division at the championships.

Historic win for Fox

NSWIS paddler Jess Fox created history over the weekend with a third consecutive women’s C1 world championship victory.
Competing at the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in London, Fox became the first woman and only the third athlete to ever win three world titles in one discipline, joining her father Richard in the historic trio.
A perfect run and time of 113.51 was nearly five seconds faster than her nearest competitor, with fellow NSWIS athlete Alison Borrows finishing eighth.
“I’m relieved,” Fox said to Australian Canoeing.

Athletics team selected for worlds

The Australian team has been selected for the upcoming IPC Athletics Championships, with 10 NSWIS athletes being included for competition.
Headlining selections in the NSWIS contingent is three time Paralympic gold medallist Kurt Fearnley, who is joined by 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallists Angela Ballard and Jodi Elkington.
The 50-strong team, 10 more than the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, also includes NSWIS athletes Guy Henley, Rae Anderson, Taylor Doyle, Rosemary Little, Carly Salmon, Stephanie Schweitzer and Sarah Walsh, who makes her world championship debut.
The championships take place in Doha, Qatar from 21-31 October.

NSWIS netballers vying for the Cup

Six NSWIS athletes have been selected on the Australian Diamonds squad to compete at the Constellation Cup in October.
Leading the selections are Sharni Layton, Paige Hadley, Caitlin Thwaites and Kim Ravaillion, who were all part of the Diamonds team that triumphed at the 2015 Netball World Cup.
Joining the World Cup winning quartet is defender April Letton, who makes her return to the team, and Gabi Simpson, who is in line to make her Diamonds debut at the Constellation Cup.
The four-match Constellation Cup begins in Christchurch, New Zealand on 20 October.

Royle excels in Edmonton

Triathlete Aaron Royle has once again performed strongly at the ITU Triathlon World Series with a fifth place finish in Edmonton, Canada.
Royle fought valiantly in the cold Canadian conditions in attempting to win his second consecutive medal performance after bronze in Stockholm two weeks ago, at one point moving in to fourth position before being edged into fifth.
Royle’s time of 53:39 was a mere one second from fourth and just six seconds from bronze, with the Rio-bound athlete now sitting 12th in the overall rankings.
The ITU Triathlon now moves to Chicago, USA for the World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships from 15-19 September.

One year to go

The countdown is on for Australia’s Paralympic hopefuls as Monday, 7 September 2015 marks one year to go until the 2016 Paralympic Games.
Beginning just two weeks after the Olympic Games, the 2016 Paralympics continue the celebration of sport with more than 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries expected to compete in Brazil.
The London 2012 Games saw 26 NSW Institute of Sport athletes winning 12 gold, nine silver and 16 bronze medals, including the incredible Jacqui Freney who won eight gold medals from eight events.
In Rio the Australian team is once again poised for great success, including NSWIS athletes Erik Horrie and Angie Ballard, who will vie for rowing and wheelchair track & road gold respectively.
For the next 12 months a host of athletes will be completing their Paralympic preparation at the NSW Institute of Sport headquarters on Figtree Drive in Sydney Olympic Park.
Follow the NSWIS on Twitter (@thenswis), Instagram (@nswinstituteofsport) and Facebook (/nswis) for all the latest news and information on athletes heading to Rio 2016!

Horrie reigns supreme

NSWIS rower Erik Horrie has continued his domination of the men’s arms and shoulders single scull with a blistering win at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in France.
Horrie, coached by Jason Baker, went out in steady fashion and moved to the front of the field by the 500m mark, establishing a three second lead over rival Tom Aggar of Great Britain.
From there it was all Horrie, who extended his lead over the final 500m to clock a time of 4:45.550 and secure his third consecutive world title by nearly six seconds.
“It’s unbelievable to win a third World Rowing Championship title. It’s certainly not something I imagined doing when I first started rowing almost five years ago now," Horrie said to Rowing Australia after the win.
“My race went exactly to plan, I knew everyone was going to come out fast and today was no different than any other day. Everyone had a bit more of a hunger, but I stuck to my race plan that I had worked on with my coach and it paid off at the end of the day.”
There was further medal success for Horrie’s fellow NSWIS athlete Cameron Girdlestone, who won silver as part of the Australian men’s quad scull crew.
Joining David Crawshay, Karsten Forsterling and David Watts, the Australians were third at the halfway mark before a charge towards the finish line, powering past Switzerland to finish just over one second from winners Germany, who led from start to finish.
In other events, NSWIS athletes Laura Dunn, Georgia Miansarow and Sarah Pound finished just short of a medal in the lightweight women’s quad scull, placing fourth; Jack Hargreaves and Nick Wheatley took fifth in the men’s pair; James Chapman, Kit Cunningham-Reid, Nick Purnell and the Australian men’s eight crew finished ninth; Ed de Carvalho placed seventh as part of the Australian lightweight men’s quad scull, and Jeremy McGrath and Kathleen Murdoch claimed ninth in the LTA mixed coxed four.